Categories of Disability in Federal Special Education Law
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was first passed in 1975, and was originally called Education for All Handicapped Children Act. The main goal is to protect the rights of children with disabilities and guarantee them a free and appropriate public education designed to meet their unique learning and developmental needs, giving them the opportunity to reach to their fullest potential. The U.S. Department of Education classifies students in special education into fourteen disability categories. Bellow you will find a chart with summarized information under which students can receive special education services. Some additional information to understand the characteristics of students in the 14 special education categories. Autism is known as a “spectrum” disorder because there is wide variation in the type and severity of symptoms people experience. ASD occurs in all ethnic, racial, and economic groups. Although ASD can be a lifelong disorder, treatments and services can improve a person’s symptoms and ability to function. Types of behaviors that are seen in people diagnosed with ASD are: * Making inconsistent or little eye contact. * Tending not to look and listen to people. * Tending to be slow in time response when someone call their name. * Use to talk at length about a favorite subject without noticing that others are not interested or without giving others a chance to respond. * Having facial expressions, movements, and gestures that do not match what is being said. * Having an unusual tone of voice that may sound flat and robot-like. * Having trouble understanding another person’s point of view or being unable to predict/understand other people’s actions. * Repeating certain behaviors or having unusual behaviors: repeating words or phrases, a behavior called echolalia. * Having a lasting intense interest in certain topics, such as numbers, details, or facts. * Getting upset by slight changes in a routine. * Being more or less sensitive than other people to sensory input, such as light, noise, clothing, or temperature. * May experience sleep problems and irritability. People with ASD may also have many strengths, including: * Learning things in detail and remember information for long periods of time. * Being strong visual and auditory learners. * Excelling in math, science, music, or art. The majority of students considered under the category of intellectually disabled are in the mild range with an IQ of 50 to 70. For many of these kids, there is no specific known cause of their developmental delays. The two characteristics shared in varying degrees by all individuals with intellectual disabilities are limitations in intellectual functioning and limitations in adaptive behavior. Limitations in intellectual functioning often include difficulties as: memory recall, task and skill generalization. These students may demonstrate a tendency towards low motivation and learned helplessness. Issues in adaptive behavior may include difficulties with conceptual skills, social skills and practical skills. Individuals with intellectual disabilities also often exhibit deficits in self-determination skills as well, including skill areas such as choice making, problem solving, and goal setting. = There are three basic types of speech impairments: * articulation disorders are errors in the production of speech sounds that may be related to anatomical or physiological limitations in the skeletal, muscular, or neuromuscular support for speech production. * Fluency disorders are difficulties with the rhythm and timing of speech characterized by hesitations, repetitions, or prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases. * Voice disorders are problems with the quality or use of one's voice resulting from disorders in the larynx. There are five basic areas of language impairments: * Phonological disorders are defined as the abnormal organization of the phonological system, or a significant deficit in speech production or perception. A phonological disorder may be described as hard to understand or as not saying the sounds correctly. Apraxia of speech is a specific phonological disorder where the student may want to speak but has difficulty planning what to say and the motor movements to use. * Morphological disorders are defined as difficulties with morphological inflections (inflections on nouns, verbs, and adjectives that signal different kinds of meanings). * Semantic disorders are characterized by poor vocabulary development, inappropriate use of word meanings, and/or inability to comprehend word meanings. These students will demonstrate restrictions in word meanings, difficulty with multiple word meanings, excessive use of nonspecific terms (e.g., thing and stuff), and indefinite references (e.g., that and there). * Syntactic deficits are characterized by difficulty in acquiring the rules that govern word order and others aspects of grammar such as subject-verb agreement. Typically, these students produce shorter and less elaborate sentences with fewer cohesive conjunctions than their peers. * Pragmatic difficulties are characterized as problems in understanding and using language in different social contexts. These students may lack an understanding of the rules for making eye contact, respecting personal space, requesting information, and introducing topics References: http://www.projectidealonline.org https://www.parentcenterhub.org https://www.specialeducationguide.com https://sites.ed.gov